Can watching NHL playoffs give you a heart attack? What the science says

As the NHL playoffs vigor up and 3 Canadian teams pursuit the Stanley Cup, fans crossed the state are riding an affectional roller-coaster — screaming astatine their televisions, biting their nails and successful immoderate cases, clutching their chests.

But could the accent of playoff hockey beryllium doing much than conscionable fraying nerves? Could it really beryllium harming hearts? Studies and experts suggest it conscionable mightiness — particularly for fans with existing bosom conditions.

“It astir decidedly tin happen. It is rare, but it inactive happens. For radical who are healthy, this isn’t apt to beryllium an contented astatine all,” said Scott Lear, a prof of wellness sciences astatine Simon Fraser University.

“But idiosyncratic is excited watching a sporting event, it tin beryllium a lawsuit wherever they’re truthful personally invested, their bosom complaint and humor unit spell up … and radical who whitethorn not person bully bosom wellness oregon those diagnosed with bosom disease, this tin beryllium problematic.”

He says helium erstwhile treated a diligent who couldn’t ticker Vancouver Canucks games anymore — the accent was truthful intense, it triggered thorax pain.

This benignant of affectional concern whitethorn person played retired vividly connected Sunday evening, arsenic the Winnipeg Jets trailed the St. Louis Blues by 2 goals heading into the 3rd period. Then, successful a stunning turn, they scored doubly — erstwhile with conscionable 1.6 seconds near — to unit overtime. Winnipeg erupted; St. Louis deflated.

And present that the PWHL playoffs are kicking disconnected Wednesday evening, it adds different accidental for fans to instrumentality connected the affectional rollercoaster.

Whether your squad wins oregon loses, there’s nary denying it: playoff games tin make an affectional and physiological roller-coaster for fans connected some sides.

Lear pointed retired that, portion it’s uncommon, a die-hard instrumentality with underlying wellness problems who’s yelling astatine the television, drinking brew and munching connected chips could beryllium mounting themselves up for a bosom attack.

Heart illness is the starring origin of decease successful Canada, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. And it’s caused by a assortment of reasons specified arsenic precocious humor pressure, precocious cholesterol, unhealthy diet, age, smoking and drinking.

But emotions and intelligence accent person besides been linked to superior bosom issues, including bosom attacks, irregular heartbeats and adjacent abrupt cardiac death.

Studies person shown that watching aggravated sports games similar soccer, rugby, baseball and hockey tin summation the hazard of bosom problems, from thorax symptom and heart attacks to cardiac arrest. Add successful immoderate of the habits that often travel with crippled time — like dense drinking, greasy nutrient and smoking — and the hazard goes up adjacent more, particularly for fans who already person bosom conditions.

“It is simply a thing. Watching the playoffs is simply a intelligence stress, and these stresses tin beryllium extreme, but each idiosyncratic is different,” said Dr. Paul Dorian, a prof of medicine and cardiology astatine St. Michael’s Hospital successful Toronto.

For example, successful 2013, a Chicago Blackhawks instrumentality had a bosom attack portion watching Game 3 of the Stanley Cup last against the Boston Bruins.

During the 2018 World Cup lucifer betwixt England and Colombia, immoderate fans’ Apple Watches reportedly flagged dangerously precocious bosom rates.

A increasing assemblage of probe suggests that watching high-stakes sports isn’t conscionable thrilling — it tin beryllium hard connected the heart.

One 2015 survey successful the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology tracked heart-related infirmary visits successful New Zealand during Rugby World Cup tournaments. Win oregon lose, admissions jumped during the games. But aft a nonaccomplishment by the All Blacks — New Zealand’s nationalist rugby squad — infirmary admissions, particularly for bosom failure, were 50 per cent higher. After a win, they tended to drop.

Trending Now

In 2020, researchers penning successful Cardiology pointed to a akin signifier among die-hard soccer, rugby, shot and shot fans. They recovered that emotionally invested spectators, particularly those with a past of coronary artery disease, look an elevated hazard of cardiac events during large games.

Data from 2017 showed conscionable however reactive fans’ bodies tin be. When researchers monitored Montreal Canadiens supporters, they recovered bosom rates doubled during games. The effect was adjacent much aggravated for those attending successful person, though viewers astatine location besides experienced bosom complaint spikes akin to what you’d spot during mean carnal activity.

“The survey raises the imaginable that the affectional stress-induced effect of viewing a hockey crippled tin trigger adverse cardiovascular events connected a colonisation level. Therefore, the results person important nationalist wellness implications,” elder researcher Prof. Paul Khair from the Montreal Heart Institute said successful an accompanying property release.

“Our investigation of elements of the hockey crippled associated with highest bosom rates supports the conception that it is not the result of the crippled that chiefly determines the strength of the affectional accent response, but alternatively the excitement experienced with viewing high-stakes oregon high-intensity portions of the game,” helium said.

Then, successful 2018, different survey focused connected what happens aft the last buzzer. Published successful the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, it recovered a emergence successful bosom attacks among men nether 55 the time aft a Canadiens win.

And during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, hospitals reported a 15 per cent summation successful cardiovascular-related admissions during and conscionable aft matches, pointing again to the carnal toll that affectional concern successful sports tin take.

While bosom attacks during high-stress sports events similar the NHL playoffs are possible, some Dorian and Lear said they’re precise rare.

So nary request to panic — conscionable cheer responsibly.

“If idiosyncratic is perfectly healthy, the chances are unbelievably low. If you are unhealthy, the hazard is higher, but it’s inactive rather low,” Dorian said.

Lear noted that added stressors — similar overeating, drinking alcohol, blistery upwind oregon delaying attraction during a crippled — tin compound the risk.

“If you consciousness the symptoms of a bosom attack, don’t hold until aft the crippled to get help,” helium said.

He besides stressed the value of wide bosom health: staying active, managing hazard factors similar humor unit and humor sweetener and keeping medications similar nitroglycerin adjacent by if prescribed.